Image Forming Apparatus and Computer Program Product

• US 20080080007A1
• Filed: 09/26/2007
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: TAKI, Kazunari, UENO, Hideo, IKENO, Takahiro, SUZUKI, Masashi, KOIE, Hiroshi, HOSOKAWA, Takahiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,179,557 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.18
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/12 by photographic printing , e.g. by laser printers
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/0025 the arrangement consisting of a wireless interrogation device in combination with a device for optically marking the record carrier

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming unit; a controller that controls the image forming unit to form, on a recording medium, an image based on image data in accordance with a first print setting; and a data recording unit that records original data of the image data and the first print setting on a non-contact tag attached to the recording medium.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus comprising;

an image forming unit;

a controller that controls the image forming unit to form, on a recording medium, an image based on image data in accordance with a first print setting; and

a data recording unit that records original data of the image data and the first print setting on a non-contact tag attached to the recording medium.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the data recording unit further records, on the non-contact tag, performance data indicating a performance of the image forming apparatus.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the data recording unit further records, on the non-contact tag, a second print setting in accordance with which the image forming unit is not capable of forming an image.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein when the image based on the image data is formed on a plurality of pages of recording media, the data recording unit records page data indicating an ordinal number of each page and the original data of the image data on respective one of non-contact tags attached to the recording media.

5. An image forming apparatus comprising:

an image forming unit;

a data reading unit that reads, from a first non-contact tag attached to a first recording medium, original data of an image formed on the first recording medium by another image forming apparatus and a first print setting in accordance with which the other image forming apparatus forms the image on the first recording medium,

a determination unit that determines whether the image forming unit is capable of forming an image in accordance with the first print setting; and

a controller that controls the image forming unit to form an image,

wherein the controller controls the image forming unit to form, on a second recording medium, an image based on the original data in accordance with the first print setting read from the first non-contact tag when the determination unit determines that the image forming unit is capable of forming the image in accordance with the first print setting, and

wherein the controller controls the image forming unit to form, on the second recording medium, an image based on the original data in accordance with a second print setting which is modified from the first print setting when the determination unit determines that the image forming unit is not capable of forming the image in accordance with the first print setting, the second print setting in accordance with which the image forming unit is capable of forming an image.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the second print setting is set as similar as possible to the first print setting as long as the image forming unit is capable of forming the image.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the determination unit determines whether the image forming unit is capable of forming the image in accordance with the first print setting based on at least one of a performance of the image forming apparatus and a model number of the image forming apparatus.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a data recording unit disposed on a transporting path along which the second recording medium is transported through the image forming unit,

wherein the data recording unit records, on a second non-contact tag attached to the second recording medium, data read from the first non-contact tag by the data reading unit.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the data reading unit reads performance data indicating a performance of the other image forming apparatus, which forms the image on the first recording medium, from the first non-contact tag,

wherein the determination unit determines whether the performance of the other image forming apparatus, which forms the image on the first recording medium, read by the data reading unit conforms to a performance of the image forming apparatus, and

wherein the controller is operable to change the first print setting according to the user instruction when the determination unit determines that the image forming unit is capable of forming the image in accordance with the first print setting and the performance of the other image forming apparatus read from the first non-contact tag does not conform to the performance of the image forming apparatus.

10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein the controller controls the image forming unit to form the image without changing the first print setting when the determination unit determines that the image forming unit is capable of forming the image in accordance with the first print setting and the performance of the other image forming apparatus read by the data reading unit conforms to the performance of the image forming apparatus.

11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the data reading unit further reads, from the first non-contact tag, a third print setting to form an image in an ideal condition required by a user, and

wherein when the image forming unit is capable of forming an image in accordance with a fourth print setting more similar to the third print setting than the first print setting, the controller controls the image forming unit to form an image based on the original data in accordance with the fourth print setting.

12. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the controller converts the original data read by the data reading unit to image data by activating an application program installed in the image forming apparatus.

13. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the controller transmits the original data read from the first non-contact tag to a computer and receives image data, which is converted by the computer from the original data, from the computer.

14. The image forming apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a data recording unit disposed on a transporting path along which the second recording medium is transported through the image forming unit,

wherein the data recording unit records, on a second non-contact tag attached to the second recording medium, the image data converted by the controller.

15. The image forming apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising a data recording unit disposed on a transporting path along which the second recording medium is transported through the image forming unit,

wherein the data recording unit records, on a second non-contact tag attached to the second recording medium, the image data converted by the computer.

16. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a data recording unit disposed on a transporting path along which the second recording medium is transported through the image forming unit,

wherein the data recording unit records, on a second non-contact tag attached to the second recording medium, a print setting in accordance with which the image forming unit forms the image on the second recording medium.

17. A computer program product embodied on a computer readable medium, which when executed by a computer for controlling an image forming apparatus comprising:

an image forming unit; and

a data reading unit that reads, from a first non-contact tag attached to a first recording medium, original data of an image formed on the first recording medium by another image forming apparatus and a first print setting in accordance with which the other image forming apparatus forms the image on the first recording medium, causes the computer to perform operations comprising;

determining whether the image forming unit is capable of forming an image in accordance with the first print setting; and

controlling the image forming unit to form an image,

wherein the controlling controls the image forming unit to form, on a second recording medium, an image based on the original data in accordance with the first print setting read by the data reading unit when the determining determines that the image forming unit is capable of forming the image in accordance with the first print setting, and

wherein the controlling controls the image forming unit to form, the second recording medium, an image based on the original data in accordance with a second print setting which is modified from the first print setting when the determining determines that the image forming unit is not capable of forming the image in accordance with the first print setting, the second print setting in accordance with which the image forming unit is capable of forming an image.

18. The computer program product according to claim 17,

wherein the second print setting is set as similar as possible to the first print setting as long as the image forming unit is capable of forming the image.

19. The computer program product according to claim 17,

wherein the determining determines whether the image forming unit is capable of forming the image in accordance with the first print setting based on at least one of a performance of the image forming apparatus and a model number of the image forming apparatus.

20. The computer program product according to claim 17,

wherein the image forming apparatus further comprises a data recording unit, and

wherein the operations further comprise controlling the data recording unit to record, on a second non-contact tag attached to the second recording medium, data read from the first non-contact tag.

21. The computer program product according to claim 17,

wherein the data reading unit reads performance data indicating a performance of the other image forming apparatus, which forms the image on the first recording medium, from the first non-contact tag,

wherein the determining determines whether the performance of the other image forming apparatus, which forms the image on the first recording medium, read by the data reading unit conforms to a performance of the image forming apparatus, and

wherein the operations further comprise changing the first print setting according to the user instruction when the determining determines that the image forming unit is capable of forming the image in accordance with the first print setting and the performance of the other image forming apparatus read from the first non-contact tag does not conform to the performance of the image forming apparatus.

22. The computer program product according to claim 21,

wherein the controlling controls the image forming unit to form the image without changing the first print setting when the determining determines that the image forming unit is capable of forming the image in accordance with the first print setting and the performance of the other image forming apparatus read from the first non-contact tag conforms to the performance of the image forming apparatus.

23. The computer program product according to claim 17,

wherein the data reading unit further reads, from the first non-contact tag, a third setting to form an image in an ideal condition required by a user, and

wherein when the image forming unit is capable of forming an image in accordance with a fourth print setting more similar to the third print setting than the first print setting, the controlling controls the image forming unit to form an image based on the original data in accordance with the fourth print setting.

24. The computer program product according to claim 17,

wherein the operation further comprises converting the original data read by the data reading unit to image data by activating an application program installed in the image forming apparatus.

25. The computer program product according to claim 17,

wherein the operation further comprises transmitting the original data read from the first non-contact tag to another computer and receives image data, which is converted by the other computer from the original data, from the other computer.